Egg Cost Calculator
What your backyard eggs cost in feed: the cost per egg and per dozen from your flock, its feed and the eggs you collect.
Result
Enter eggs collected per week to see the result.
https://calcgallery.com/pets/egg-cost-calculator/
Results are arithmetic on the figures you enter and are estimates. Products, materials and animals vary, so follow the maker's instructions and label, make a test piece where it matters, and ask a vet about feeding. Nothing here is safety or veterinary advice. Read the full disclaimer
How to use the Egg Cost Calculator
- Enter how many hens are laying.
- Check the feed per hen per day. It starts at 0.25 lb, Oklahoma State Extension's figure for a mature hen; change it if you have weighed what yours eat.
- Enter the size and price of the feed bag you buy.
- Count the eggs the whole flock lays in a typical week and enter them.
- Add the shop price of a dozen if you want to compare.
How it is calculated
feed a day = hens × feed per hen per dayfeed cost a day = bag price ÷ bag weight × feed a dayeggs a day = eggs per week ÷ 7cost per egg = feed cost a day ÷ eggs a daycost per dozen = cost per egg × 12The feed per hen starts at 0.25 lb a day, the figure Oklahoma State University Extension’s Backyard Flock Production fact sheet gives for a mature hen. Everything else is what you enter: your flock, your feed bag and the eggs you collect.
Getting a better number
Two figures move the answer most: how much the flock really eats and how many eggs it really lays. Weigh out a full bag, note the date, and note the date it runs out; bag weight divided by days, divided by hens, is your own feed per hen. Count eggs for a few weeks rather than one, since laying swings with the season. Spilled and wasted feed is part of what the flock costs, so it is right that it counts as eaten here.
With your numbers
- Feed a day = 6 hens × 0.25 lb = 1.5 lb
- Feed cost a week = $20.00 a bag ÷ 50 lb × feed a day × 7 = $4.20
- Cost per dozen = feed cost a week ÷ 28 eggs × 12 = $1.80
Quick reference
Feed only. Bedding, grit, treats, housing and the hens themselves are not included, and spilled feed counts as eaten.
| Example | Feed cost per dozen eggs |
|---|---|
| 6 hens, 28 eggs a week | $1.80 |
| 3 hens, 15 eggs a week | $1.68 |
| 12 hens, 40 lb bag at $18.99, 50 eggs | $2.39 |
| 4 hens in winter, 8 eggs a week | $4.20 |
| 20 hens, $28 bag, 100 eggs, shop $5 | $2.35 |
| 5 hens, 21 eggs, 25 kg bag | €1.36 |
| 10 hens at 120 g, 50 eggs | €1.21 |
Where the numbers come from
The fixed figures this calculator relies on, and the published source each one was checked against. How the calculators are built and checked
1 source
Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Feeding the Laying Hen, ANR-2913 (new August 2022): "A laying hen will consume between 100 and 150 grams of feed per day or roughly 0.25 pounds." https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/farming/backyard-small-poultry-flock-management-series-feeding-the-laying-hen/. The same figure in Zook, D.; Payne, J. Backyard Flock Production, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Fact Sheet ANSI-8202, revised 07/2016, "Feed and Water": "For a mature hen that consumes only 0.25 pound of feed each day, this will be a very small amount." https://pods.okstate.edu/fact-sheets/ANSI-8202pod2016.pdf
Used for
- Feed a mature laying hen eats in a day: 0.25 lb (113 g). Breed, size, weather and the feed itself change it.
Common questions about the Egg Cost Calculator
- How much feed does a laying hen eat a day?
- Oklahoma State University Extension puts it at about 0.25 lb (113 g) of feed a day for a mature hen. Large breeds, cold weather and free access to feed push it up; hens on good pasture eat less from the bag. The page starts at 0.25 lb and lets you change it, and weighing a week of feed is the most reliable figure.
- Why does my cost per dozen jump in winter?
- Hens eat about as much feed when laying slows down for short days or a moult, so the same weekly feed cost is spread over fewer eggs. Try the page with your winter egg count to see the difference.
- Does this include the cost of the coop and the chickens?
- No. It is the feed cost of an egg only. Bedding, grit, oyster shell, treats, the coop, the birds themselves and vet costs all add to what an egg really costs; add them yourself if you keep a full budget.
- What is a laying rate?
- The share of hen-days that produce an egg: 28 eggs a week from 6 hens is 4 eggs a day, a laying rate of about 67%. It varies with breed, age, daylight and season, which is why the page asks for the eggs you actually collect rather than assuming a breed figure.
- How is the break-even number worked out?
- It is the eggs a week at which the feed costs the same as buying that many eggs at the shop price: the weekly feed cost divided by the shop price of one egg. Above it, your eggs cost less in feed than the shop's.